Even as the genre has grown and changed over the years, it's still the old, established ones that pay the most — and not any of the ones that you mention. That payoff appears to cap at a cool million — a round, impressive figure that the highest-paying shows repeatedly turn to (with one big exception).

"Survivor" and "The Amazing Race," two of the biggest, longest-standing players on the reality competition landscape, routinely give $1-million prizes to their season winners. This is also true of relative newcomer "America's Got Talent" (which debuted in 2006, five years after "The Amazing Race" and six years after "Survivor").

An even newer entrant has also joined this club: "American Ninja Warrior" has been giving out million-dollar prizes to its winners since its seventh season in 2016. 

There's been one big exception to this million-dollar rule. The 40th season of "Survivor," an all-star edition dubbed "Winners at War," doubled the number, awarding its winner, Tony Vlachos, $2 million.

It should be noted that these are one-time numbers. Other individual competitors have won more through repeated wins. For example, Chris Tamburello, Johnny Devenanzio and Ashley Mitchell have all earned more than $1 million through repeat appearances on the lesser-known but long-running MTV show "The Challenge."

If we widen the definition even further, the biggest winner of all would be Brad Rutter. He raked in nearly $5 million through his various appearances on "Jeopardy" (which, admittedly, is not quite the kind of reality show you were thinking of).

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